Starting in the first half of the 2010s, lawmakers in the Western Hemisphere began to modernize cannabis policies to permit adult-use cannabis sales. The first local jurisdictions were the states of Colorado and Washington in the U.S., and the first country to adopt a national recreational legalization measure was Uruguay in 2013.

Uruguay’s historic legalization measure involved a multi-pronged approach to permitting adults to source cannabis legally. Adult cannabis consumers in Uruguay can register to cultivate a personal amount of cannabis in their private residences, or they can join a licensed cultivation association, or register to make legal cannabis purchases through a pharmacy. Pharmacy sales officially launched in Uruguay in 2017.

Canada would eventually become the second country to legalize adult-use cannabis sales in 2018. While Canada and Uruguay’s legalization models are similar in some ways and different in others, arguably the biggest difference between the two countries’ approach to legal cannabis sales is that Uruguay limits legal sales to residents only.

Over the years, lawmakers in Uruguay have kicked around the idea of expanding legal recreational cannabis sales to adult tourists and non-residents, but the public policy change has never actually materialized. That may be changing in the near future.

“Uruguay is considering the possibility that tourists and non-residents over 18 years of age who arrive in the country may be able to buy cannabis even without being citizens.” reported El Planteo (translated from Spanish to English). “The executive director of IRCCA (Institute for the Regulation and Control of Cannabis), Martín Rodríguez, confirmed that the agency is analyzing the possibility of expanding the legal cannabis circuit in the country, increasing the coverage of the formal market and weakening the illicit market.”

“The inclusion of foreigners is at the heart of the discussion,” because those who visit Uruguay and want to use marijuana already do so, only they are forced to resort to the black market. Therefore, “this discussion is central to considering the next step in legalizing marijuana,” Rodríguez stated, according to the reporting.

At the beginning of this calendar year, nearly 75,000 adult consumers had reportedly registered to make legal recreational cannabis purchases from Uruguay’s 40 authorized pharmacies allowed to make sales. Additionally, a reported 15,796 adults were members of 460 cannabis clubs registered in Uruguay, and another nearly 12,000 adults reportedly cultivated legal plants in their homes.